Southwest Books of the Year
W. David Laird Picks
Hummingbird’s Daughter, The
Teresa Urrea was known throughout the U.S.–Mexico borderlands since the late nineteenth century as Teresita, the Saint of Cabora. As Teresita grew (she reaches 19 in this novel) she learned healing methods. Mexican president/dictator Porfirio Diaz saw Teresita’s increasing popularity among the poor as a serious threat of revolution. The author ends at a climactic point in Urrea family history, when Teresita and her father are forced into exile in the southwestern United States. Luis Alberto Urrea, award-winning poet, essayist, and novelist, is a superb storyteller with a remarkable gift of language.
In the Shadows of the Sun
Spanning World War II, and set mostly in south-central New Mexico around White Sands Proving Ground, this novel recounts a ranching family’s struggles to cope with the “temporary” loss of their ranch to the Army, and their devastating loss of a son reported killed. The older brother shoots a neighbor boy and is sent to prison. The younger brother’s wife has an affair. All of these losses have been foreshadowed in the loss of interest in the ranching life shown by the children. Parsons’ perfectly executed, sometimes surprisingly humorous, dialogue is impressive.
Oatman Massacre, The: A Tale of Desert Captivity and Survival
Both history and historiography, this well-written book adds detail and corrects errors of commission and omission found in Royal B. Stratton’s now nearly 150-year old account, Captivity of the Oatman Girls, the “standard” account often criticized for its popularizing and sensationalizing. Of the two Oatman sisters captured near what is now Gila Bend, Arizona, only the older, Olive, survived. McGinty writes well, with precision and clarity, so we know without doubt when he is speculating and the evidence on which he bases his speculations.
Wild Girl, The: The Notebooks of Ned Giles, 1932
In 1999, photographs by the virtually unknown Giles, 80, are shown at a New York gallery, including one photo of an Apache girl curled in fetal position in a jail cell. Giles is fairly cynical about the recognition, though not about the girl or his work. His notebooks of the 1932 expedition from Douglas, Arizona into the Sierra Madre Mountains of Sonora/Chihuahua tell us how he came to be the official photographer and how the girl came to be in jail. Wonderful characters, well-structured narrative, satisfying reading.
Arizona Breeding Bird Atlas
Based on a 10-year study, researchers identify and report in this doorstop of a volume, the certain and/or likely nesting places for some 270 bird species in Arizona. Using the standard 7.5-minute topographical map as a base, the results of the fieldwork are laid out so that birders may locate and get to those spots which could allow them to add that elusive species to their life lists. This book is a must-own for any serious birder.
Diezmo, The
In this short but mesmerizing novel, Bass tackles the famous/infamous 1842 Mier Expedition, a doomed invasion of Mexico by Texans. Motivated by greed and a need for adventure, they followed leaders who were divided by strategy and political philosophy. The narrator, now an old man, recalls in detail what happened to the ragtag band of volunteers as they crossed the Rio Grande to surprise groups of Mexican militia. Finally, soundly trounced with the loss of hundreds of lives, the Texans were marched south to be incarcerated and almost certainly executed by the Mexican government.
Forged By Fire: The Devastation and Renewal of a Mountain Community
When a massive fire roared into life on Mt. Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson in June of 2003, television, radio, and newspapers bombarded us with the latest details. We knew, long before the fire was under control, that it was nearly total devastation for the houses and businesses in Summerhaven. Barnes retells the events in far greater detail. Barnes has done her homework, including extensive interviewing of people directly and indirectly involved, and now we know “the rest of the story.”
Preserving Western History
Gulliford’s concern is with what has come to be known as “public history”—history not taught in a classroom. Such history takes many forms: conferences and meetings, workshops, museums, and historical reenactments. This collection of papers, 36 grouped into 11 categories, represents a “textbook” of public history. For example, in repatriation of Native American artifacts at Grand Canyon National Park, a study question asks for the reader’s opinion of the Hopi “altars” constructed by the non-Hopi archaeologist Henry R.Voth. If that won’t give you pause for thought, you are out of touch.
About W. David Laird